WanderingMogwai

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Happy editing! Peter coxhead (talk) 05:52, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

Photo removal

Hi, sorry, I didn't notice that you were a new user, otherwise I would have explained more clearly here why I removed some of your photos. Photos are good in general, but there are points to note:

• Most importantly, as per WP:NOTGALLERY, every photo should add something distinctive. (Do all existing photos and photo galleries? No, but the principle is sound.)
• Generally we try to avoid redundancy in captions as in section headings. Thus, for example, the caption for the image in a taxobox of a species should not repeat the name of the species – what else would it be?
• I'm as guilty as most other editors of not completing the alt field; see MOS:ALT. It should not just repeat the caption.
• Scientific names of organisms at the rank of genus and below are italicized; see MOS:LIFE.

By the way, you should sign your comments on talk pages: put ~~~~ at the end of the comment. Peter coxhead (talk) 06:02, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

Consider the addition of File:Green Longjawed Orbweaver -2- (Tetragnatha Alberta and Saskatchewan).jpg to the family article. I moved it to the genus article (i.e. Tetragnatha). You can't just use the default file name as the caption. The best I could say was "Unknown species" – if it was photographed in Alberta or Saskatchewan, then do please change the caption to "Unknown species from ...". Peter coxhead (talk) 07:16, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

caption formatting, "sp." vs. "spp.", etc.

Hi. I see that you've been adding a large number of insect and spider images recently. For the most part, the photos are generally good, and most (but not all) are correctly identified, so on the whole they are a positive contribution, and I don't want to discourage you. However, there are a few things you could improve yourself when posting these images, that will otherwise compel editors such as myself to go in and fix the captions. There are three general things to be aware of: (1) presently you give every caption twice, and you do not need to. For example, where you have used the text string "|alt=Merodon spp.|thumb|Merodon spp." you can simply use "|thumb|Merodon spp." - and omit the "alt" version. (2) as in this example, you should be italicizing the scientific name; instead of "Merodon" it should be "Merodon". (3) The correct abbreviation for a single species is "sp." - the abbreviation "spp." is only used for plural, when referring to several species at the same time. Note also that this is not italicized, as it is not part of the scientific name. With all three things taken into consideration, then, in this case "|alt=Merodon spp.|thumb|Merodon spp." would be edited to read "|thumb|Merodon sp." - and if you make these corrections yourself while creating the links, it will help editors in the future. All of the photos you have already posted will need to be fixed, and that's going to be a lot of work. One final note: on a few of the articles, there was no existing taxobox image, and in such cases, it is best to insert your image into the taxobox. See Hyperaspis signata to see how to do this. Thanks, Dyanega (talk) 16:09, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for your input and patience. I'm sorry about making more work for the editors. I REALLY appreciate the opportunity to share my work and be of use in general. I get my IDs from iNaturalist and BugGuide.net. I try not to rely on my own intuition but trust the experts. Should I go back in myself and edit the images I've contributed? I'm not sure I have the capacity. Once again thank you for your patience! WanderingMogwai (talk) 17:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Well, one good thing about Wikipedia is that eventually, needed edits get made, even if it takes a long time. It's more important to adjust your protocols going forward. Your activity only slightly intersected with mine, and when I looked at your editing history, I saw that you've been posting a LOT of images, in which case a little pro-active education on formatting seems by far the best approach; the old "teach a man to fish" sort of thing. As for the IDs, both of those resources have a mix of experts and amateurs, and no guarantees on their quality control. The most egregious error was the ID of the ichneumon, which was an ophionine, not a Megarhyssa, and no expert would make such a serious mistake. That one had to be by an amateur, or someone using an app (which are notoriously awful at insect IDs). I have not looked closely at the files you've been uploading to Wikimedia, but I checked a few, and your images would benefit from more precise categorization; if you know a species name (or even just a genus), then it's worth checking to see if that species/genus has its own private category in the Commons. For most things, they do, and since the categories are hierarchical you can just put an image directly into the lowest-ranking category and it can be retrieved easily by anyone doing higher-rank searches (the same as in Wikipedia). Only one taxonomic category is ever needed, so shoot for the lowest (most refined) you can. Peace, Dyanega (talk) 23:59, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Ok. Your response is informative and encouraging. I can and will now do better from now forward. I have recently been posting very many images. I only recently started though I've been shooting digital since 2006 so I have quite a back log. I will continue with but more care. Thank you. WanderingMogwai (talk) 10:59, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

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